Pats have to face Redskins before battle of the unbeatens

Friday

Oct 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 26, 2007 at 9:47 PM

For weekend release.

Pardon the Washington Redskins and Carolina Panthers if they feel like sparring partners. The regular season’s main event – a potential heavyweight battle of unbeatens between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts – is only a week away.

Glen Farley

Pardon the Washington Redskins and Carolina Panthers if they feel like sparring partners today.

The regular season’s main event – a potential heavyweight battle of unbeatens between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts – is only a week away.

The Redskins and the Panthers are all that stand in the way.

“Guys in this locker room have been around too much where you can’t overlook teams and opponents every week,” center Dan Koppen said, dispelling the notion that the Patriots might get caught looking past the Redskins at Gillette Stadium this afternoon (4:15: Channels 25 and 64; WBCN-104.1 FM).

“It’s one of those things that every week it’s a dogfight and we’re expecting that (today).”

While the 7-0 Patriots play host to the 4-2 Redskins, the 6-0 Colts will be in Carolina for a meeting with a Panthers team that is also 4-2.

Wins today by the Patriots, the first team in NFL history to win its first seven games by 17 points or more, and the Colts, winners of their first six by an average of 15.2 points, will set the stage for Super Bowl XLI-1/2 inside Indy’s RCA Dome next Sunday.

The two teams aren’t Dome strangers.

As recently as Jan. 21 of this year, the Pats and Colts squared off in Indy, Peyton Manning rallying his team to 32 points in the second half and a 38-34 victory in the American Football Conference Championship Game.

As for the Pats and ’Skins, they haven’t met up in the regular season since a 20-17 Redskins triumph at FedEx Field on Sept. 28, 2003, a loss New England followed with a 38-30 victory over Tennessee at Gillette that kicked off a league-record 21-game winning streak.

Their most recent encounter, a preseason game on Aug. 26 of last year, resulted in a 41-0 Patriots romp at Gillette.

“This is a team that’s quite a bit different than the last time we saw them, in preseason a year ago,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said.

“They’ve improved tremendously, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.”

The Redskins will need to be at their defensive best if they are to compete with a Patriots team that is on pace to score 638 points this season, a total that would absolutely obliterate the league-record 556 points the Minnesota Vikings tallied in 1998.

The numbers the Patriots have put on the board have added up to the best start in franchise history.

If nothing else, though, history is on the Redskins’ side today.

Winning their last six meetings, they own a 6-1 lead against the Patriots, whose lone victory in the series occurred more than 35 years ago, on Oct. 1, 1972, when Jim Plunkett tossed touchdown passes of 11 and 24 yards to Reggie Rucker and Josh Ashton in the second half of a 24-23 win over the Redskins at Schaefer Stadium.

That ’72 Redskins team went on to win the NFC championship before losing to the perfect Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VII.

The current Redskins team has an offense that falls well shy of being championship quality. Quarterbacked by Jason Campbell, the ’Skins currently rank 25th in both total and passing offense –- facts that don’t seem to faze running back Clinton Portis, who provided the Patriots with some potential bulletin board material during the week.

“Talent-wise, I think we (are) the most talented team in the NFL,” Portis said in a story that appeared in Thursday’s edition of the Washington Post. “It’s discipline. It’s coming together and playing as a team.

“When it comes to talent, I think we've got more talent than anybody, including the Patriots. You look at the receiving corps they put together, I think our receiving corps is just as talented.”

With the likes of Pro Bowler Sean Taylor and first-round draft pick LaRon Landry at the safety positions, Washington does have some viable weapons in the defense department. As a unit, the Redskins rank fifth overall in both total and rushing defense, eighth in defending the pass.

“Especially on defense, they have a lot of athletes, guys that are just flying around making plays,” Koppen said. “They know what’s expected of them in their system and they’ve proven so far that they can play. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.”

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